It's True! It's True!

''It's True! It's True!'' is the eighth comedy album by Bill Cosby, released in 1969 by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded live at Harrah's, Lake Tahoe, Nevada and was his last for Warner Bros. Due to a musician's strike, Cosby was allotted extra stage time at Harrah's, much of which was captured on this album. It features Cosby performing stand-up comedy on topics including women, helicopters, ants, burlesque, gambling, the toxic drug Spanish fly, and his travels to countries outside the United States.

The album reached No. 21 on the R&B Albums chart, and reached No. 37 on the ''Billboard'' 200 the same year. It received favorable reviews and garnered retrospective praise from ''AllMusic'', ''The Colorado Springs Gazette'', the ''Philadelphia Daily News'' and ''The Deseret News''.

The album received renewed attention in 2014, after multiple women accused Cosby of sexual assault and rape, often facilitated by drugs. ''The Village Voice'' reported on the similarities between the female accusers' allegations and Cosby's "Spanish Fly" routine on the album, where he recounted his desire to slip the drug into women's drinks. Further comparisons were reported on by multiple publications, including CNN, ''The Boston Globe'', the ''International Business Times'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', ''Philadelphia Daily News'' and ''The Washington Post''.

Production

Recording

''It's True! It's True!'' was Cosby's last album for Warner Bros. Records for twenty years. His later albums, including the subsequent production '' 8:15 12:15'', were released under Tetragrammaton Records, which was managed by Cosby and associates Bruce Post Campbell and Roy Silver under Cosby's parent company CSC Corps. It was recorded live at Harrah's, Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Due to a musician's strike, Cosby was allotted extra stage time at Harrah's, much of which was captured on this album.

Cosby wrote all the material for the album and was its sole performer. The mastering on the album was carried out with a process referred to as Haeco-CSG monaural processing, which was used for a few years during the transition from mono to stereo to create artificial stereo from mono recordings. According to AllMusic, this led to a decrease of lower frequencies and an audio image which was not well established.

Release

The recording was released in 1969 in live album format. It was subsequently released on compact disc in 2005 by Rhino Records, and again in 2008 by Rhino Flashback. A digital version was jointly released in 2013 by Rhino and Warner Bros.

Reception

Commercial

''It's True! It's True!'' reached No. 21 on the R&B Albums chart, and reached No. 37 on the ''Billboard'' 200 the same year.

Critical

''AllMusic'' gave the album three stars out of a possible five. In a 1990 article reflecting on Cosby's career, ''The Colorado Springs Gazette'' placed the album among the artist's "Major Records". A journalist for ''The Repository'' recounted in 2003 that the album was amongst his early recollections of Cosby recordings, which also included ''I Started Out as a Child'' (1964) and ''Why Is There Air?'' (1965).

Upon the album's 2005 release on compact disc, ''Philadelphia Daily News'' gave it a favorable review, inviting readers to "Return with us now to the glory days of Bill Cosby as a standup comedian". The newspaper called the album "still very funny". The same year ''The Deseret News'' called the album "very funny", and noted it recounted Cosby's days filming ''I Spy''. The article called the re-release of Cosby's work a "cause for celebration".

Retrospective controversy

In a track on the album titled "Spanish Fly", Cosby discussed his desire to obtain the drug Spanish fly and use it on women by placing it into their drinks. Cosby said he first learned about the substance at age 13.

Cosby further elaborated on his attempts to find Spanish fly in his book ''Childhood'', published in 1991 by Putnam. In its review of the book, ''The Columbus Dispatch'' noted Cosby's story about Spanish fly "ventures a bit beyond" childhood. ''Dayton Daily News'' wrote that Spanish fly is described in Cosby's book as a type of "wonder drug". In a 1991 interview with Larry King, Cosby again joked about usage of the drug on women. In 1994, ''Greensboro News & Record'' reported that Cosby told a story about how, in his youth, he had tried to purchase Spanish fly from a member of the military, and how it had turned out to be cornstarch.

The 1969 story by Cosby recounting his quest to find Spanish fly received renewed attention in 2014, after multiple women came forward to publicly accuse him of past incidents of sexual assault and rape against them. According to accounts by the women, Cosby utilized drugs to subdue them prior to the asserted acts of violation by the comedian. The "Spanish Fly" track from the album was re-discovered and publicized in 2014 by ''The Village Voice''. ''Ebony'' described the unearthing of the audio as "unfortunate timing", given the accusations by women that Cosby had drugged them prior to sexual assault. ''The Boston Globe'' wrote: "Cosby had an entire stand-up routine about drugging women's drinks with 'Spanish fly' back in 1969; that it got laughs then says a lot about how views can shift in 45 years." The comparison between the routine and women's subsequent accusations of drug-facilitated sexual assault received additional coverage from other publications, including the ''International Business Times'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', ''The Washington Post'',
''Philadelphia Daily News'', and CNN. With regards to the "Spanish Fly" piece, ''The Washington Post'' wrote, "in hindsight one of his riffs seems particularly insensitive."

Track listing

All material written by Bill Cosby.

;Side one
#It's the Women's Fault – 5:25
#Helicopters – 1:40
#Ants Are Cool – 1:05
#Burlesque Shows – 2:25
#The American Gambler – 1:10
#Shoelaces – 1:00
#Spanish Fly – 2:55

;Side two
#Mr. Ike & The Neighborhood TV Set – 4:45
#Foreign Countries – 14:00

*"It's the Women's Fault" begins with a re-telling of the routine "The Apple" from Cosby's previous album, ''To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With'' (1968).

Personnel

*Bill Cosby – performer

;Technical
*Jimmy Hilliard – producer
*Lowell Frank – engineer
*Rudy Hill – editing
*Ed Thrasher – art direction, cover photography
*Dave Schultz – digital mastering

See also

*'' Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow...Right!'' (Debut album by Cosby, also released by Warner Bros. Records)

Footnotes

References

External links

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{{Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby live albums
Stand-up comedy albums
Spoken word albums by American artists
1969 live albums
Warner Records live albums
1960s comedy albums
1960s spoken word albums